ANALYSIS
The Covid-19 pandemic may remain the final turning point in French and European industrial strategies in China. While all car manufacturers were betting on this market a decade ago, some are already learning from their experience. The Renault company has just announced Tuesday the end of the sale of thermal cars of its brand in China. Like PSA, the French manufacturer has never managed to find its place there. He will only sell electric cars and utilities there.
No longer an El Dorado
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Despite its 1.4 billion inhabitants, China is a constraining market. Only the French luxury giants and Airbus imposed themselves there. And the partial withdrawal of Renault symbolizes the change of perspective of French industrialists compared to what had hitherto been an El Dorado.
Last June, the supermarket chain Carrefour was already leaving the country.
The European Union encourages its States to defend their industrialists
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, now is the time to fear the takeover of industrial flagships in Europe. Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner of the European Union, called on the states to enter the capital of large European manufacturers to avoid Chinese investors buying them, taking advantage of their low cost.
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Fear of a scenario like after 2008
This fear is fueled by the episodes which had taken place in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008. The Chinese had then seized the port of Piraeus in Greece and the car manufacturer Volvo, as well as took shares in Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz.
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While Renault is only worth around five billion euros on the stock market, the period therefore seems conducive to a form of economic sovereignty in Europe.